Chapter Nine
By sundown, Liara did not feel better. Sadly, although she had nothing left in her stomach but water and about a quarter of an apple, she still held her stomach in discomfort and had a bit of a fever. She felt entirely too lazy not getting out of bed all day, and her back was starting to ache from the lack of physical activity, but her body simply wouldn’t have her getting up any time soon.
Later in the day, Eirik came back to visit her, asking about how she was faring. She couldn’t help but smile at how thoughtful he was. He really seemed to be concerned about her, and he even seemed to feel guilty for some reason that she wasn’t feeling well, although she tried her hardest to allay that silly notion. It was no one’s fault.
As Eirik stepped into the room, he brought a chair over from the corner of the room so he could sit next to the bed. His dark hair was out of its usual tie, a few pieces hanging down in front of his eyes. She had noticed, however, that it was a bit too short for the tie in the first place, so even when he had it tied back his hair still managed to free itself. Nevertheless, she found herself thinking that she preferred it when he didn’t tie it back.
She was so busy observing him, watching how he moved with grace, but confidence and strength as well as he did something so simple as sit down, that she did not hear the question he had asked her. He was looking at her with an expectant expression and she realized she had to say something.
“Um, I’m sorry… what?” she replied intelligently, sitting up a bit straighter and wanting to look anywhere but his eyes.
Eirik gave a soft chuckle, probably (hopefully) attributing her lack of concentration to the fact that she wasn’t feeling well. “I asked if you were feeling any better.”
“Oh, right… Unfortunately, not really. I still feel feverish, and if I ate something I fear I might not be able to keep it down,” she told him honestly, watching as his eyes narrowed slightly at this new information.
He nodded and stood suddenly, and Liara reached out her hand to sit him down again, but her grasp fell short as he was already across the room. “Do not go firing cooks!” she scolded him without thinking.
Eirik turned to her, and she immediately regretted opening her mouth, feeling heat in her cheeks. He gave her a smile, an expression on his face that said he thought she was funny. “There will be no firing of cooks. I was going to fetch a maid to get you a drink and some towels, if that’s alright with you.”
She felt herself blush even more, lowering her eyes and nodding that of course, that was fine. The captain left the room for no more than a minute, and then came back inside after having sent a maid downstairs. Sitting in the chair beside her again, he had a smirk on his lips that she did not like at all. “So. I fire cooks left and right, do I?”
Liara lifted her gaze to him, worried that he was offended, but he wore a grin. She rolled her eyes, not able to keep herself from smiling back at him. “You were quick enough to want to dismiss the cook this morning!” she defended herself.
Eirik laughed, and she found herself thinking that the sound of it was soothing. It was also nice when he smiled. When they were traveling south with the soldiers, he occasionally gave a smile but mostly she felt that he was all business. Here, in the comfort and privacy of his own home, he smiled more.
Liara changed the subject quickly, afraid of getting distracted and missing another question like before. “What has occurred today in my absence? Anything of interest?”
Eirik shrugged one broad shoulder. “Not particularly. I went over the accounts with my main servant, who I entrusted to keep the estate running smoothly while I was away. But those are tedious financial matters that you probably don’t want to hear about.”
She smiled at him, and although she would like to hear him talk about it, she agreed that she would most likely be bored. “Is it still snowing?”
He stood again and went to the window. “Yes. I cannot believe none of the servants thought to open the curtains for you.”
Liara looked outside from her vantage point on the bed as he parted the curtains and tied them open. It was indeed still snowing, heavy white flakes falling from the heavens and covering the entire land in a thick blanket of the stuff. She thought it was beautiful.
“Perhaps tomorrow if I feel well enough, we can go outside?” she offered, wanting to go adventuring and also be out in the snow more than anything. It reminded her of Loriel, where it snowed much more frequently.
Eirik smiled at her from where he stood next to the window and nodded. “Alright, we can do that. But only if you feel well enough, Liara. I won’t have you catching your death because you went outside before you were ready.” His expression turned to that of a stern father, and Liara nodded in acceptance.
“If you insist,” she smiled impishly, and she saw Eirik roll his eyes slightly.
The next morning Liara did feel much better, and she thought that perhaps having nothing left in her stomach was the reason. The fever had passed and she was able to rise out of bed and stretch her stiff muscles.
She suspected it was a bit too early for any servants to be about and she didn’t want to be a bother, so she decided she would dress herself. It wasn’t difficult to get herself into a simple day dress and braid her hair down her back.
After slipping on some shoes and grabbing a shawl to ward off the winter’s chill, she exited her room and went into the corridor outside, trying to remember the layout of Eirik’s home from his tour the other day. She remembered the library and felt a smile on her lips in anticipation of seeing all those wonderful books, making her way down the stairs and to the left.
Liara found the library without much difficulty – it was a large room, and hard to miss. She spent a good portion of her morning simply going through all the different titles and creating a small stack of the ones she wished to read, hoping she wasn’t offending anyone by making herself at home.
She gathered her four different books in her arms and looked around the room for a good place to settle in, finding a settee with many pillows near the big bay windows. She smiled to herself and cracked open the first book, losing herself in the pages for a while.
Just when her mind began to stray and she started to wonder why she hadn’t heard from Eirik or his servants all morning, she heard the Captain’s deep voice echoing through the large house. He didn’t sound particularly pleased.
“Liara!” his disgruntled shout came from right outside the library.
“I’m in here!” she piped up, setting her book to the side and standing up. Eirik came striding into the library looking none too pleased, his dark brows furrowed for some reason unknown to her.
“Where have you been? No one has been able to find you all morning, we were worried,” he informed her, seeming uncomfortable announcing the last bit. At that moment one of the servants poked their head in the room and sighed in relief upon seeing her. Eirik dismissed the girl and turned to Liara once more, expecting an explanation.
“I… I’m sorry, I was up much earlier than everyone else and didn’t want to disturb anyone, so I came down here and I’ve been reading. I didn’t mean to cause such a fuss,” she apologized, slightly confused as to all the uproar. Why should it matter where she was? It wasn’t as if she was particularly needed for anything, she was just a guest.
Eirik’s rigid stance relaxed slightly and he offered her a smile. “It’s alright. It’s just, you’ve been ill, so when the maid went up to wake you and you weren’t in bed… We feared the worst. No matter,” he dismissed the issue almost as quickly as it had come about. Changing the subject, he sat a respectful distance away from her on the settee, but close enough to be friendly. “What have you been reading?”
Liara relaxed immediately now that she knew he wasn’t angry, and happily showed him the books in her stack.
Eirik smiled fondly as she held up the one she was currently reading and said, “That’s one of my favorites.”
“You’ve read it?” she gasped. For some reason he didn’t appear to be a library type of man. He nodded and she instantly jumped in. “Do not spoil the ending for me,” she warned seriously, but with a smile on her face.
“On my honor, I would never,” he swore, making a mock bow.
“Good,” she said simply, and set the book aside. With a sigh, she stood. “Are you terribly busy? I was hoping we could take that walk outside soon.”
“You must be cooped up. I always hated when I wasn’t feeling well because my mother would make me stay in bed for days on end,” he smiled, showing his straight white teeth. Liara found her gaze dropping to his mouth as he spoke but quickly corrected herself. She moved her eyes up to meet his green ones, which weren’t any less distracting.
“Yes, I would love to get some fresh air,” she agreed quickly, and turned on her heel to head upstairs and get her shawl. She realized her swift exit probably confused the captain, but she was too busy shaking her head at herself to care.
What was the matter with her? She had spent the last few years on the run. She knew better than anybody that just because she felt safe didn’t mean she was. Just because she was in a place where there were no immediate threats didn’t mean she was safe at all. And now she was falling under the spell of the handsome captain.
No!, she thought decidedly. I am not falling under his spell, because there is no spell to fall under. I am Liara Helyanwë of Loriel and I will not be captured because of a man.
As she headed back downstairs with her shawl wrapped around her shoulders, she kept this in the back of her mind. No matter how charming, handsome, and trustworthy Eirik Askelson seemed, she would not let her emotions get the better of her.
She also started planning her escape. It wasn’t that Eirik was keeping her prisoner here, but it seemed unlikely he would let her leave without some sort of explanation. She needed to be on the move, never staying in one place for long. The more she lingered here, the more vulnerable she would be.
About a month went by, uneventful. Eirik resumed his daily routine once Liara was well again, and he grew bored with simply sitting around the home, no matter how good company Liara was. He needed stimulation, something to do; otherwise he’d go mad.
A military man like him definitely enjoyed his daily training sessions with his soldiers. The men were required to attend training daily beginning at sunrise and lasting no more than a couple hours. During this time they practiced fighting techniques with weapons and hand-to-hand combat, as well as learning where to strike the armor of an opponent to do the most damage, and other things of that nature.
Eirik definitely enjoyed training. Some of his men he knew for a fact loathed it, but for him it was a good release. Now that his father was gone, it was up to the man of the household to deal with finances, household staff, managing the estate, and the like. All of that was burdensome and somewhat awful to Eirik, and he enjoyed the couple hours a day that he could get out of that musty, dark study and do something physical.
That, and if there was one thing Eirik was good at it was combat.
On a few different occasions, Eirik had been taking a momentary pause from sparring with one of his fellow soldiers or giving pointers to another. As he was taking a much-needed drink of water, he happened to look away from the soldiers to the house, which was situated not far from the training fields. There in the window he could see Liara’s blonde head, her arms crossed as she observed what was happening during training.
After that, Eirik was disinclined to admit, he trained harder. He checked for her at the window too often for his liking, and fought like a man possessed when he knew she was watching. It was senseless, he knew that. But for some reason he liked knowing she was watching him at his best. This was something he was good at.
Over the next day or so, he hatched a plan. It wasn’t enough anymore for her to be watching from a faraway window. He knew just by the fact that she stood at that window nearly every morning that she was interested in what was happening.
He caught Liara after dinner one night, stopping her just before she retired to her room for the evening. “Liara?” He cleared his throat, realizing how weak his voice sounded.
She turned, fixing those blue eyes on him with her eyebrows raised. “Yes?”
“I was wondering… I’ve noticed you… Uh well, I know you enjoy watching the training fields in the mornings, the men fighting.” Here her cheeks turned an adorable shade of red. “I wanted to offer you a closer look. Would you be at all interested in coming down to the fields tomorrow morning and observing?” For some strange reason, his heart beat a bit more quickly in his chest. It was just a silly question, she didn’t even have to accept, and there was no cause to be nervous. And yet.
Liara’s lips parted in a smile, and suddenly he was delighted he asked. “I think that is a wonderful idea.”
Eirik smiled in return, nodding and taking a step away toward the door to his room. “Great. Well goodnight, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning bright and early.”
The grin remained on her lips as well as a certain spark in her eye as she curtsied and ducked inside her own room. “Goodnight, Captain.”